


Thunder Enough For The Both of Us

by Lateforclass



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Idiots in Love, Jane as Thor, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), The mighty Thor - Freeform, When is the Earth ever not in trouble?, avengers to the rescue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:20:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27756781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lateforclass/pseuds/Lateforclass
Summary: Thor is out and about with the Guardians of the Galaxy, free of responsibilities or the need to be anyone's hero and just exploring the galaxy with a band of morons he's coming to slowly like and even call friends. It's typical that the Earth is in trouble yet again, interrupting his new found solace. For a little blue dot in the vast immensity of space, why was it that Earth was the one planet that could never seem to stay out of trouble?
Relationships: Jane Foster/Thor
Comments: 7
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, it's been a while since I've written fanfiction so I may be a little rusty. This is essentially my rendition of how the story of Thor continues. I've recently acquired an immense love for the Marvel's Avenger series and I just had to write this one out.

**Chapter 1**

_‘You've got your mother in a whirl_

_She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl_

_Hey babe, your hair's alright_

_Hey babe, let's go out tonight’_

Thor tapped his feet to the music as Quill, Drax and Rocket shouted the lyrics to an Earth song he was unfamiliar with. Who knew Earth had such uplifting and savage music? If there was one thing he enjoyed about living with the Guardians it was the constant presence of good music on their ship. Tony had introduced him to some Earth music when he stayed with the avengers during the course of his excursions to Earth but none of it was as mind bogglingly good as the one’s that emerged from Peter Quill’s tiny rectangular contraptions.

_‘Rebel rebel, you've torn your dress_

_Rebel rebel, your face is a mess_

_Rebel rebel, how could they know?_

_Hot tramp, I love you so!’_

Now Thor may not have been familiar with the song but he did have superhuman hearing and the lyrics were clearer the second time around.

“Rabbit, is it customary for Earth bound bards to insult one’s mother?” Thor shouted loudly in order to be heard over the din the guardians were making. Even Groot was completely enraptured in merry making as he danced around the ship, finally willing to rip himself away from his precious video games.

“What? Who’s insulting mothers?” Rocket shouted back as Quill and Drax turned to look at Thor.

“The bard who wrote the verses to this melody is”

“What? Where did you get that crazy idea from?” Quill interjected looking at Thor like he’d insulted him personally.

Thor sighed and replied “Well the bard puts a mother and a tavern wench in the same song. He has also displayed he questions a mothers’ wisdom and intelligence by letting everyone think she doesn’t know the difference between the genders of her offspring.”

Quill looked at Thor like he’d abruptly grown horns as he quipped “Of course we can trust you to get just about everything wrong about the song. And Earth doesn’t have bards, it has pop stars, jazz, rock n roll, and this song is about gender fluidity and giving the middle finger to gender stereotypes.”

“Awww, now he just looks adorably confused Quill” Rocket laughed loudly, Quill and Drax joined in as Thor continued to frown.

“I am Groot”

Thor scoffed, “Yes thank you tree” he told Groot before he turned back to the others, “I don’t know about you lot but on Asgard one could have his head cut off for writing a song about mothers together with tavern wenches. When we were younger, my brother Loki and I shouted at our mother when she refused to allow us to train with real swords before we were ten and she turned both our hands into stone for an entire week. When our father heard about what we had done, he had us whipped in the castle’s courtyard in plain sight of everyone in Asgard. We never disrespected our mother again in our entire life, even” and here Thor paused, his eyes looking distant and lost. 

Everyone around Thor instantly knew what that look meant, the God of Thunder was either going to go to his room and throw stuff around or he was going to lock himself in for days without giving an explanation to any of the Guardians until his immortal body absolutely required sustenance.

“Even when Loki was at his worst he treated her with kindness and respect….she was the only one whom Loki loved completely.”

Thor stood up from his seat, Rocket let out a loud sigh, Quill turned back around and squinted at the controls pretending to be very occupied.

Drax being Drax said “You can break anything except the ornament I brought from Ilam last week. If you break it, there will be a duel to the death which I will win!’

“Drax!” Rocket admonished as Groot said “I am Groot.”

Thor scoffed, the idea that a being like Drax could defeat him was preposterous. He turned around from the Guardians and marched back to his living quarters in the Milano. Rocket counted to ten before they all heard the tell-tale sound of something hitting the floor and breaking into pieces.

“Oh man! They better not be the chinaware again! How many of those have we had to replace lately?” Quill objected loudly, looking pissed at having to deal with a moody demi-God on a daily basis.

“I swear Groot isn’t as bad and he’s a teenager” Quill complained, Groot looked at Quill and smiled unabashedly, finally there was someone else the guardians could bitch about and he was left in peace to play his video games.

Rocket’s furry brows crinkled as he frowned and said “You know, in terms of God lifespans, Thor is probably a teenager.”

“What? Didn’t you say he’s been around for 1500 years? How can someone not learn to throw tantrums after so long?” Quill asked sounding incredulous.

Rocket shrugged and said “Well, word is Asgardians live a very very very long life, so by that calculation, Thor is probably still very young.”

“Well, I don’t care Rocket, make him stop or I am marooning him in the next remotely inhabitable planet we fly by.”

Rocket frowned at Quill disapprovingly, “You know, it wouldn’t hurt for you to be a little more understanding of him Quill. He’s lost his whole family, his planet, his people and most of his Avenger friends. You can’t deny having a guy as powerful as him has made all our missions that much easier. So what if he breaks a few stuff?”

A loud crash reverberated around the Milano and Quill just knew Thor had gone and broken something a lot harder to replace than chinaware.

“Alright, I’ve had it. If he wants to act like a teenager, I’m gonna treat him like a teenager.” Quill removed a panel above his head, there were several buttons inside which glowed a soft blue.

“No Quill, don’t do it, he’ll be mad at you for days!”

Quill found the button he was looking for and pushed it, the light turned to orange as the artificial gravity field generator was turned off. Rocket hastily buckled himself to his seat, Groot’s video game floated up from his hands as he latched himself onto his seat by growing his limbs around the seat, Drax laughed as he floated up from his seat.

Blessedly, the sound of things being thrown around and broken stopped and Quill had a satisfied smirk on his face.

“QUILL, how dare you get in the way of the mighty Thor’s rage! You will live to regret this!” Thor’s menacing voice did nothing to faze Quill’s disposition as his smirk widened into an all-out smile.

Rocket shook his head, as if it wasn’t enough that he had to put up with Thor and Quill’s dumb alpha male posturing. “We need a mission” he declared, it wasn’t as if the Guardians had a lot to do these days, after Earth’s avengers had undone all of Thanos’ horrors. They helped out where they could in rebuilding and fighting off the occasional mob or monster in planets that needed their help. Mostly, they just travelled in their spaceship to the furthest reaches of the universe, and as fun as even Thor thought it was, what with his long life-span’s travels being mostly limited to nine realms they were all just a tad bit bored.

With his mind made up, Rocket unbuckled himself and floated out of what constituted the bridge of their space ship, he headed to the communications array and typed out a message to be relayed to all space stations and space ships in their vicinity.

“We are the Guardians of the Galaxy, we have on board a moody demi-God and a semi-celestial man-child who will tear each other to pieces if they don’t have a job. If there’s anything you want done, give us a call back.” Rocket muttered this under his breath as he typed out a much less grave message to be relayed, wondering how surreal it was that he came to be the minder of two God children, “I’m supposed to be a suave thief!” he grumbled before he shouted, “Quill, turn the damn gravity generators on or I’m gonna spit in your beloved stark raving hazlenuts next.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

‘I am Groot’ Groot exclaimed as he pushed his face against the glass, his eyes wide as saucers as he took in with awe the scenery around their spaceship.

It’s not every day that they got to see something as wonderful as a star birthing nebula like the pillars of creation, even if they were the Guardians of the Galaxy and they all spent most of their lives in space. True to its name, the nebula rose up like spires of a castle, a dense mass of cloud and dust that reflected light in every color imaginable.

‘I can feel the pulse of the universe in this place’ Thor stated, his tone reverent, ‘Billions of years from now, when even I am long dead, stars will be born here and roam the galaxy to find their companions.’

Rocket turned to look at all of them, ‘Look at all of you, how people in the Galaxy think of you all as seasoned spacefarers is beyond me. It’s just another nebula like any other ordinary nebula, now remember the mission. We go in, we get those eggs, we do not draw attention to the sleeping celestial and then we haul ass back here. Everyone got it?’ Rocket looked around at Quill, Drax, Mantis, Thor and Groot.

‘You know, for a rabbit, you seriously do have the presence of a leader’ Thor said and Rocket smirked as he parked the Milano in a stationary orbit around Dagan, a planet just on the outskirts of the nebula hanging isolated in the dark tapestry of space surrounding it. It was a miracle that the planet survived for so long, being this close to a nebula, it must have already been consumed by the ever growing mass of the cosmic pillars.

Their mission was simple, they had to collect the eggs of a rare species of animals called sailu that existed only in this planet in the whole universe and transport it to a planet called Larvaeven in a planetary system in the Delphi expanse. Thor only knew that they would be rewarded handsomely if they succeeded in their mission.

The planet they were on was not a typical rocky planet, the substance of the planet itself seemed somehow ever changing, like it had no particular form.

‘Alright everyone, this planet is not like anything we’ve seen before, it doesn’t have a solid surface, just a puddle of goo that you could fall into if you’re not careful. So stay in your space suits and don’t do anything stupid’ Quill looked every one of them in the eye before he handed them all a space suit disc with the exception of Groot.

‘Groot you’re staying here’ Quill said trying to make his voice firm.

Groot’s eyebrow rose up in indignation, ‘I am Groot!’

‘Yes I know you’re part of the team but I need you to sit this one out.’

‘I am Groot!’

‘Look I have no idea if the spacesuit will work for you and the last thing I need is for you to stick your twig somewhere it doesn’t belong and get dragged into the planet’s surface.’

‘I am Groot!’

‘We don’t have time to run tests with you and a spacesuit now Groot, we’re on the clock here.’

‘I am Groot!’

At Groot’s particularly vehement response, Rocket sighed, ‘You really are getting an unbearable attitude and a filthy mouth Groot, and we’re leaving you here for your own safety. Now be a good kid and wait here for us.’

‘I am Groot!’

‘We know you’re not a kid’ Quill threw his hands up in the air as Groot continued to insist on them taking him to the planet.

‘Tree, being a sentinel is a great honor in the Nine Realms. It is a coveted role for anyone to play during a war.’ Thor interjected making everyone pause as Groot looked at Thor with a questioning expression.

‘I am Groot?’

‘A sentinel is a person that stands watch, they are the first to see any threat that may befall their warriors, they are the first challenge an enemy must overcome if they ever hope to defeat an army. It is a duty given only to the most responsible and wise warriors. And you, are our sentinel, we all count on you to keep this ship safe and warn us of any threats we may face on the planet from here.’

Thor walked forward and knelt in front of Groot who appeared fascinated, ‘Now, does that sound like a responsibility we would hand over to you if we believed you to be a foolhardy youth?’

‘I am Groot.’

Quill and Rocket sighed in the back ground as Thor grinned at them, ‘Let’s go’ Quill said as he tapped on the disc to activate his space suit.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To navigate the formless surface of the planet, they had all been provided with a pair of nanonic boots that kept them from being sucked into the surface of the planet as they traversed its surface, another reason why Groot couldn’t go come with them to Dagan.

They slowly trudged their way through the planet, it had no sun but the light on its surface was brighter than planets that had three suns, when Thor looked down all he could see was changing colors, almost as though the surface was just a projection. Rocket had the co-ordinates to the place where they would find the sailu’s eggs, Thor walked along side Rocket, Quill and Drax walking a little ahead of them, while Mantis followed a little behind Rocket.

‘You know, you’re really good with Groot. I don’t think he’s ever listened to me or Quill the way he listens to you.’

‘Well, I was taught diplomacy right from birth. Though I was never as talented as Loki in that area, I did gain some skill.’

‘Nah, diplomacy is for dealing with snobs and politicians. Groot’s a kid and you’re good with kids. I bet you’d make a cool God dad… that is if you can even have kids, can you have kids?’

‘Yes I can’ Thor replied and it was true, technically he could have kids with any mortal being if he wanted to. But Thor had never really given much thought to children, he certainly did not want any now. He would make a poor parent, Rocket was wrong to think otherwise.

‘Alright, I think we’re here’ Rocket said, they all stopped as the planets color changing surface turned into something that looked solid.

‘Are those the kluver eggs? They look incredibly hideous.’

‘Kluver?’ Thor frowned at Rocket who just waved his hand and said, ‘That’s Drax, stubbornly insisting on facts and names that are fictitious is second nature to him, you’ll get used to it.’

They were all able to see the sailu eggs now and they were anything but hideous. They were little fur balls in every color imaginable that were spread over the wily surface of the planet like cotton candy in every color stacked together endlessly. And it was endless, for as far as their eyes could see, the planet’s surface was covered in sailu eggs.

Rocket bent down to touch one of them and a little black eye opened to look up at them, ‘Wow…’ Rocket murmured, the sailu egg closed its eyes again and didn’t open them.

Rocket then tried to take it in his hands but it wouldn’t budge and remained stuck to the surface of the planet. ‘It won’t come out.’

Quill tried next with the same result. Drax, Mantis and Thor tried but the little one eyed puffballs refused to come away in their grasping hands. They did not move an inch.

Mantis then tried to alter their consciousness and make them sleep, they slept but still they could not be extracted from the surface.

Thor, Quill, Drax, Mantis and Rocket formed a chain as Rocket’s hands clutched the egg in his hand. Thor pulled Quill who pulled Drax who pulled Mantis who tugged at Rocket with all her might. They tried a little more variations of their formation, Thor at the front, Thor behind Rocket, Quill at the front, none of it worked.

‘It’s obvious they are stuck solidly to the surface. They are not attached by any mechanism or biological matter so it must be something else’ Quill said putting his hands on his hips.

Drax took out both his daggers as the rest of the guardians looked at him in utter disbelief, ‘Let’s harvest these foul creatures!’

Rocket put his hands up in a placating gesture, ‘Drax! Cool it, will ya? C’mon man, these are eggs, they’re living creatures, we can’t just harvest them like they are food.’

Drax didn’t listen however, and he moved forward his knives gripped menacingly.

Thor stood in front of Drax like an insurmountable mountain and said ‘You will not harm these creatures.’

‘Do you have another plan to get them off the surface and deliver them to our buyer?’ Drax asked, evidently confused by Thor’s rather grave position on cutting the eggs off the surface.

‘No…’ Thor dragged his response, ‘but I will not allow you to simply cut them off and end their lives needlessly.’

‘Thor, let’s try something, give them a zap’ Quill said, waving two of his fingers to indicate what he meant.

Thor turned to the smushy furballs on the ground and looked scandalized, ‘No!’

Quill rolled his eyes, ‘I’m not asking you to zap zap, just give them a tiny tingle with your lightning. Just enough to shock them into moving.’

‘I am not going to give them a zap, who knows how delicate their constitutions are? I might end up accidentally harming the eggs. What you call a tiny tingle might be a bludgeoning bolt to them’

Quill groaned, ‘Well as your Captain and the leader of this mission, I am commanding you to give them a zap, now!’

‘No’

‘Thor, buddy, you agreed to come with us and acknowledge me as your Captain. You agreed to defer to me and my decisions on missions. Now, unless you’re the kind of guy who doesn’t stick by his word, you will do what I want you to do.’

Thor frowned, ‘You are putting me in a position of choosing between harming an innocent creature and upholding my honor as a man.’

‘I thought you were a God’ said Rocket, personally, he didn’t fancy having to stick around for long to collect the eggs from the planet. The celestial on the planet had been sleeping for two centuries now, but the people at Larvaeven had warned them that it could wake up any time.

‘Come on Thor, push at it with the lowest strength of your power. You can modulate your powers at will right? You can do this without harming them, unlike Mr Let’s Harvest Like A Cave Man here’ Rocket said pointing at Drax.

Thor sighed and bent down reaching out to one egg with just two fingers, he closed his eyes and when he opened them they were filled with the power that flowed through his veins at all times, reminding them all just how different and dangerous he was from them. Not for the first time, Rocket thought they were lucky that Thor was a good person at heart, for all his looming presence and bravado, he was a completely affectionate and benevolent oaf, if he’d been even half as bad as Thanos, the universe would have cowered before him and his might.

A little spark left his fingertips and touched the furball, immediately its eyes opened and like a ripple passing through silent waters, the surrounding eggs opened their eyes until they could see a small black dot blinking open all across the expanse.

‘Rabbit, I don’t think these are eggs.’ Thor’s voice rang with trepidation as he slowly withdrew his fingers from the furballs.

‘Oh my God, did we just wake up the sleeping celestial?’

‘I told you we must just harvest them the warriors’ way and be on with our business.’

‘Drax, not now!’ Quill exclaimed. ‘Can you pull them out now?’ he asked Thor who looked back at him like he couldn’t believe how dumb Quill was.

Drax swept forward and pulled out a furball with all the tact of Drax, he laughed as he collected an armful of eggs. ‘We are triumphant!’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that’ Thor said as all around them the planet’s surface gleamed, the light blinding their eyes before they turned a sick crimson.

‘She is angry, we must leave, she will kill us all if she finds us’ Mantis spoke, her antennae glowing bright, her expression comically grave.

‘Sure thing, Drax put the eggs in here’ Rocket pulled out a small box from his backpack and held it out for Drax.

Thor gripped his hammer tight, a bolt of pure energy passed through the surface, they heard rather than felt their jet packs being put out of commission.

‘Space-suit integrity down to sixty percent’ Numbers flashed across each of their space suits as the surface below them began to ripple and change.

Thor cursed as he started to spin his hammer, he was still getting used to his new hammer, as bigger and grander as it was, it was not Mjolnir. When he held Mjolnir, he almost felt that the hammer shaped itself to fit his hands, with Stormbreaker he had to take care with wielding it for fear of injuring himself or others with it.

Another blast of energy rocked through the surface, ‘Everyone hold on to me, now!’ Thor’s booming voice commanded and none of them bothered to argue, not even Quill. They raced up as Thor held Stormbreaker aloft and flew them out of the celestials clutches.

Two tendrils of light grabbed onto Mantis’ body and pulled and just like that the Guardians were all scattered apart like flies in space. The planet’s life force danced menacingly amidst the backdrop of the nebula, tendrils of light extending from all directions searching and seeking for something to devour. Mantis who was already in its clutches was being dragged down to the planet swiftly.

‘Drax! Quill! Help me! She’s going to kill me!’

Thor looked around at the guardians scattered across space, slowly but surely drifting apart from each other. Their suits would not help in keeping them alive for long. However, they would have to wait, his whole being thrummed with lightning as he lifted his hammer and went straight for the tendril that was holding Mantis captive, his hammer met resistance as he jammed it into the celestials life force, Mantis was loose, he pulled his hammer out, grabbed Mantis and raced as the tendrils followed them on their heels.

‘Groot, we need your help, we’re stranded in space outside the planet and we need you to bring the Milano to my co-ordinates. Groot!’ Quill was shouting

‘Groot, help! Groot, we need you!’ Rocket screamed as he saw the tendrils of celestial energy creeping up towards him.

‘I am Groot’

‘It doesn’t matter, I’ll walk you through how to do it, do you see a screen in my pilot’s seat? There’s an option called Destination Course, input the co-ordinates 115478.911 in it and press engage.’

‘I am Groot’

‘I know you’re scared Groot but you gotta step up. Come on’ Quill kept his voice steady and calm despite seeing the energy tendrils reaching up into space and rapidly closing the distance between his crew members. ‘Come on, come on buddy, you can do it. You can do it.’

Far from where they were stranded in space, Quill saw Thor racing up and up as the celestial energy followed him and Mantis, ‘Thor, that space suit was not built to withstand flight speeds that extreme, slow down or Mantis’ suit integrity will fail.’

‘I am being hunted by a living planet because you told me to zap it, and now you want me to stop running from it?’ Thor turned mid-flight and raced past them until he was no longer visible to their eyes.

‘He didn’t abandon us, did he?’ Drax asked sounding outraged, ‘I shall hunt him down and make him pay if he has.’

‘Drax, I know you can never see the obvious even if it hits you in the face but we are not in a position to hunt down anyone right now. We better figure something out and fast’ said Rocket, without their jet packs, they were basically sitting ducks for the celestial.

‘They’re close’ Quill murmured, as all three of them had their eyes glued to the closing distance between the blinding tendrils and themselves.

‘Rocket, I may not say it out loud but I’m glad I met you buddy. You’ve….you, Drax, Mantis, Groot….Gamora….you’re the only family I ever had. Thank you…for bringing us back.”

Just as they closed their eyes with resignation, Rocket, Quill and Drax felt themselves being hauled out of the way of the questing tendrils, they raced past at an alarming speed. Quill felt his digestive system being rearranged inside out as he had the uncontrollable urge to vomit. Just as suddenly as they started trailblazing past stars and planets, they stopped and fell down hard on their backs. Quill and Rocket turned and emptied their stomach after hastily deactivating their space suit.

‘What was that?’ Rocket asked as Thor looked down at the three of them with a small smile on his face.

‘That would be your delicate human and rabbit constitutions that cannot withstand open space flight at the speed of light years.’

‘We travelled light years?’ Rocket exclaimed, he knew Thor’s hammer was powerful, hell it could summon the bifrost and transport them to anywhere in the galaxy in a scant few minutes but he still found its vast and terrifying powers to be humbling whenever he witnessed it. Thor said he hadn’t even unlocked most of its powers yet.

‘I am Groot’ Groot was hiding behind Thor, peeking out and looking shame faced.

‘It’s alright Groot, we shouldn’t have left you in charge of the ship all by yourself anyways’ Quill said dropping his head back to the hard floors of the Milano and groaning. Feeling the firm hardness of the floor felt reassuring after spending the better part of the day in a planet that he could literally get sucked into.

‘I am Groot’

Thor turned back and said ‘Being a warrior does not mean that you should never experience fear tree. It is experiencing fear but still being willing to look past your fear and act. On the contrary, it was very brave of you to have tried to pilot the spaceship to save your comrades.’

‘I am Groot’

‘How is Mantis? Is she okay?’ Quill asked, remembering how she was the only one who was grabbed by the celestial’s tendrils.

‘She is well, she is resting’ Thor said. A long moment passed after which Thor cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke again, ‘I have never and will never abandon my friends. And that is what you all are to me, even if I have not made that clear in the past. I….In all my long year of life, I was always expected to serve a role, as a King of Asgard or as Earth’s mighty avenger. With you is the only place I’ve ever felt…free.’

‘I am Groot’

Quill finally stood up and his lips quirked up in genuine mirth as he replied ‘You’re not so bad Thor’ and then with a pointed look he added ‘I still want you to stop breaking chinaware on my ship though.’

Thor nodded, ‘Aye Captain.’

‘Now you’re making me sentimental’ Rocket grumbled, ‘Drax, take the eggs or whatever they are and store them in the freezebox until we reach Larvaeven.’

‘You got them?’

‘You managed to get them back here?’

Thor and Quill exclaimed simultaneously, they look at each other and then away quickly.

‘Of course, I’m not a rookie that lets go of the merchandise at the first sign of trouble.’ Rocket stated looking like they were both dumb to expect him to leave their prized possession back on the planet.

‘Come on Quill, let’s set course for Larvaeven and then get some sleep.’

‘Wait a minute, those things may not be safe to keep around on the ship. What if they turn into a celestial and consume the entire ship?’

‘Sometimes, it amazes me how dumb you can be Quill, I mean I understand you are half human but still’

‘I agree with the Captain rabbit, we do not know what these things are capable of, it is better to dispose of them now and forsake the bounty we were promised for them.’

‘So you both are teaming up against me now?’

‘We have prior experience with celestials, those eggs are not going to turn into a giant light tentacle monster and devour us.’

‘We have one prior experience and as the Captain of this ship I am going to have to ask you to remove them from my ship.’

‘It’s more of a shared captaincy anyways, and if you both are so concerned why don’t you use that hammer and summon the bifrost? We get to Larvaeven and ditch the merch and get paid a hefty fee that will keep us rich for months! Ships don’t run themselves on nothing you know!’

Quill and Thor looked at each other again, that was not actually a bad idea. And since Rocket had literally put his paw down on this.

‘Okay’ Quill said and Rocket grinned, ‘That’s more like it.’


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter – 3

_‘Uptown girl_

_She's been living in her uptown world_

_I bet she's never had a backstreet guy_

_I bet her mama never told her why_

_I'm gonna try for an uptown girl’_

‘Rabbit, raise the volume!’ Thor exclaimed as he shouted the lyrics to the song along with the Guardians. This song was one of his favorites, and incidentally it also happened to be one of Quill’s favorite songs. He had more or less gotten accustomed to Earth songs always involving mothers’ in some way or another. Most often to denote that mothers were universally disapproving of their female children having carnal relations with a man.

_‘She's been living in her white bread world_

_As long as anyone with hot blood can_

_And now she's looking for a downtown man_

_That's what I am’_

‘I can’t believe you both like this song, with all the macho attitude you both put out, one would expect you to stay away from songs for chicks.’ Rocket grumbled, he preferred Earth music that had a lot of noise to it, that kind of music was appropriate for a crew of space adventurers. Quill never used to like songs like these in the past, Rocket wondered whether Quill’s change in taste was because of a certain green person having essentially abandoned him to do who knew what. Or it could be that Quill’s collection of Earth music had doubled after he’d actually been to Earth. Thor though, that almost made Rocket have a conniption, how could a guy like Thor like such girly music. Sure, the guy’s disposition was hardly the same it was five years back when he was still a swashbuckling deity who looked menacing despite the losses he had experienced that weighed on him like a mountain. Thor had panic attacks now, though he hadn’t had such an episode in a long time, still there was no excuse for liking chick music.

‘What? This is not chick music.’ Quill fired back at Rocket. Thor nodded and both he and Quill continued to loudly belt out the lyrics of the song.

_She'll see I'm not so tough_

_Just because_

_I'm in love with an uptown girl_

_You know I've seen her in her uptown world_

_She's getting tired of her high class toys_

_And all her presents from her uptown boys_

_She's got a choice_

‘If you continue to annoy me with bad music on my ship, I’m gonna blow out the sound system and sell all your manwalks.’

‘Walkman, not manwalks’ Quill corrected.

‘I can understand Quill being into girly music, but you Thor, what excuse have you got?’ Rocket addressed Thor, his furry brows raised in contempt as Thor shrugged.

‘I actually understand what this song is about and it reminds me of Jane’ Thor admitted as Rocket’s face softened.

‘Who’s Jane?’ Quill asked sounding curious.

‘Thor’s girl’

‘She’s not my girl rabbit, hasn’t been for a very long time.’

‘So what, your Jane was an uptown girl?’ Quill probed, he had to admit he was curious about how a romance between a God and a human actually played out, when it was not a megalomaniac celestial who was sleeping with mortals for the sole purpose of impregnating them and using their offspring for their own nefarious purposes. Things had gotten a lot better between him and Thor lately, ever since their mission to Larvaeven, Thor had seemed to really settle in with the crew and he was mostly in high spirits, still Quill didn’t know whether he would answer a personal question about a love interest that he clearly still seemed to hold a candle for. He’d never seen Gods moon before, but if they did they must look a little like Thor looked now.

‘She was, I mean….we met under very unpleasant circumstances. I had known nothing but adulation, pride and arrogance in my life then. My father had just banished me to Midgard after I committed one too many grave errors, he took away my hammer which was basically an extension of my arm at the time. There I was, literally thrown out on my ass as humans would say on a foreign realm and the first thing I see when I open my eyes is Jane’s beautiful face.’

‘From what I can hear, it seems like you were the uptown boy’ Quill teased as Thor’s smile widened.

‘I was coming to that part. Jane was very much…’ here Thor cleared his throat and looked uncharacteristically shy, ‘inexperienced in carnal relations. Her human companion’s up to that point had been repressive and dreary at best, you could say that I was her downtown man awakening.’ Thor had a smug self-satisfied smirk on his face that made both Quill and Rocket groan.

‘Earth has a five hundred thousand vurlon unit industry dedicated to carnal relations not just with their own species but with weird mythical monsters and space aliens. I highly doubt Earthlings are that inept’ Rocket said as Thor’s face acquired an expression which meant he was going to see this argument through until he had indisputably won.

‘Vurlon unit industry? How did I miss this?’ Quill interrupted.

‘Because you were too busy being pathetic. Thor is incredibly popular in their industry and its abundant creations. All the avengers are.’

‘What?’ Thor exclaimed, ‘What creations?’

Rocket looked back at Thor with a stunned expression, ‘You mean to tell me that none of your avenger friends ever shared any of those creations with you?’

‘No…and what creations are you talking about? I was never intimate with any mortal other than Jane’

‘They call it porn buddy, and it doesn’t really require you to be present to create porn with you in it. They have the tech to fake anybody’s body and face, that’s not counting role-playing which is actually even more popular than tech morphed faces and bodies.’

Thor’s face looked thunderous, ‘They dare to besmirch my name and take my appearance for their entertainment. I will have words with Nick Fury about this’ Thor pointed a finger at Rocket and looked ready to lose it, grab Stormbreaker and be off to Earth to give the Earthlings a talking to.

Rocket laughed out loud, ‘I thought you’d be thrilled that Midgardian ladies consider you as something of a legend in the sack. Most of them have this misconception that your Godly powers extend to granting mind-blowing and world-shattering orgasms.’

Thor who looked about ready to summon his hammer axe and forcibly bring the guardians to Midgard a minute ago suddenly seemed absolutely cheerful as he leaned back in his seat and smiled. ‘That is not a misconception rabbit, I am Godly in the sack.’

‘This again’ Quill moaned and Rocket huffed.

‘I do not jest. Besides, most average mortals hardly have virility enough to bring any real pleasure to their female companions.’

‘Tell me you’re not pig headed enough to actually believe that’ Quill said shaking his head as he found Thor to be as obstinate in his insistence of the fact that Gods were better than humans at everything and no mortal could ever hope to compete with them in any area and win.

‘Not all of them are merely mortals, I’ll bet Captain America can match your strength and skill in any area.’ Rocket said and to both his and Quill’s annoyance Thor burst out laughing, he doubled over in his chair and just kept guffawing loudly.

Rocket and Quill looked at each other and then at Thor and then back at each other. When it was clear that Thor was not going to stop cackling like a madman, Rocket snapped, ‘Okay, you mind telling us what is so damn funny that you feel the need to laugh like a lunatic?’

Thor did not stop laughing as he attempted to explain rubbing tears of mirth from his eyes as he did, ‘Cap…Captain America….Steve can hardly match me in strength or skill in that area. He was the poster child for celibacy, totally repressed and probably absolutely lacking in any skill. He wouldn’t utter the word ‘sex’ because it made him uncomfortable, he called it fondue.’

‘What about Iron Man then? I heard he was quite the lady-killer on Earth.’

Thor shrugged ‘I guess Stark would fare better than Steve but he is still not me. I have centuries of experience behind me in addition to my powers. I was bedding women long before any of you were even born, do you really think mortals can compete against me and win?’

‘Well, the only mortal you were with dumped you, so how good can you really be?’ Rocket argued back knowing he was pushing his luck with the God of Thunder.

‘Not because Jane was sexually dissatisfied with me and our parting was mutual. I had bigger responsibilities to Asgard, to my people, to finding the infinity stones and stopping someone like Thanos from doing what he did. Also, at that time, my father was still alive and he was very much against me seeing Jane.’

Quill and Rocket looked at him like he had committed a particularly heinous offense, ‘Tell me you didn’t actually tell her that when you broke up with her.’

‘Yeah, I thought from the way you spoke about her when we were planning the time heist that she really meant something to you’ Rocket reiterated after Quill.

Thor once again looked confused as he said, ‘I did tell Jane that. Because that was the truth, my duty was more important than idling with her and basking in what we had.’

‘Asshole’ Quill and Rocket said together, ‘If you ever see her again steer clear, cause I’ll bet the lady has some choice words for you.’

‘I doubt that we will ever see each other again rabbit. Human lifespans are but a blink of the eye in comparison to how long I would live for.’

‘Good for the pretty lady!’ Rocket declared. Thor looked a little disturbed with how Quill and Rocket had perceived the end of his relationship with Jane. Sure, looking back now he understood that their relationship with each other did not end under the most pleasant of circumstances but it was what it was.

At that time, Thor still had Asgard, his father, his people and his sense of duty would not allow him to be with her and ignore his responsibilities. He understood the futility of their relationship and how he would lose her before he ever truly felt like he had a life with her. Then his father had died, Ragnarok had destroyed Asgard and most of his people, Thanos had killed Loki and the very people who did not approve of his relationship with Jane simply because she was a mortal and did not belong among Gods who would outlive her died before her and were lost to him forever. He had sacrificed her and her affections for the sake of his family, thinking he would eventually forget about her as he had a thousand other women because he would have his duty to protect Asgard, to protect the nine Realms from chaos and eventually a companion with whom he could truly have a life with.

Instead, beginning with the loss of Jane Foster which was his own doing, he had lost everything. He had chosen to forsake his throne and as a result of it, lost Asgard and his father. He had chosen to cause Ragnarok by unleashing Surtur only for Thanos to slaughter his people and Loki. He had forged Stormbreaker to kill Thanos and in fulfilling his need for revenge had caused uncountable lives to be snuffed across the universe. It seemed every decision that he had made from the time he left Jane had led him and those around him to loss. In a dark corner of his mind, he understood Quill and Rocket's opinion of him regarding Jane Foster. It was almost poetic justice that he lost everything he ever had in his life by sacrificing the only person he ever loved truly. Now, Jane Foster was lost to him too.

‘Yes, good for her. She deserved a better man, one who did not choose to forsake her.’ Thor spoke quietly both Quill and Rocket heard him.

Rocket sighed, he turned around and patted Thor’s thighs with his paw as if Thor were a domesticated animal in dire need of tactile affections. ‘Life is complicated man, you will find someone again.’

Rocket was just about to turn back around when the Milano’s bridge was suddenly plunged into complete darkness as they felt all its systems powering down and then going offline.

‘What the lickety split!’

‘What the hell is happening to my ship? GROOT, I swear if you’d put your twigs in where they don’t belong I’m gonna stick your limbs in a bucket of tar.’

Quill’s voice was absurdly loud in the utterly quiet and dark interior of the ship.

Somewhere from the bowels of the ship, they heard Groot’s offended answer saying he had nothing to do with the ships sudden power outage.

‘I don’t think this is Tree’s doing’ Thor said, ‘If this were an accident, our ships life support systems would be disabled too and you mortals would have felt the need for air.’

‘Pretty sure I’ve seen you breathing Thor’ Quill quipped, he’d had enough of Thor lording his Godliness over them all today.

‘I think there’s someone out there’ Thor murmured solemnly and his body suddenly came alive with power as the Milano’s bridge was finally illuminated with light.

Rocket and Quill tried to get to the ships controls and bring back the power but their screens remained completely unresponsive.

‘I think someone’s hacked into our system’ Quill said panic evident in his voice, if Thor was right and someone was out there they had total control over the ship, they could jettison them all into space by opening the blast doors and there was not one thing Quill or any of the guardians could do about it.

‘Rocket, get the space suit discs from the storage cabinet’

Before Rocket could get up from his seat, they heard a sonorous voice say ‘That will not be necessary, Guardians of the Galaxy, I have no intention of harming you.’

‘Where’d that voice come from?’ Quill and Rocket turned around in their seats and tried to look through the ships windows to see if anyone was outside as Drax, Mantis and Groot came rushing into the bridge.

‘I can sense another presence, a powerful presence’ Mantis said reverentially.

‘I can as well’ Thor said as Stormbreaker zipped past Drax and reached Thor’s outstretched hands.

As suddenly as the ships power went out, the lights were back on again and suspended in space in front of the Milano was a being that could only be called a vile monster. Its appearance was so disturbing that the expression of everyone on the bridge was twisted into abject horror upon seeing it. Even Thor was not unaffected by the sheer bizarreness of the being hanging out in space before the Milano, and he had seen monsters and creatures of every kind imaginable. There was something too twisted and sinister about this monster, it looked to be a mix between man, beast and machine, all hashed together to make a being that was truly grotesque and terrifying to the extreme. It’s face looked like the muzzle of a giant horse, a row of talon like teeth completely exposed without any way of hiding them, its neck and arms were a mixture of metal and flesh that looked like it had been stitched together meticulously to be utterly savage. Thor had seen Ultron in all its glory and Ultron would look like a child playing at being a man around this thing. What was truly disturbing however was the way the monster was dressed, red cape billowing behind its shoulders, the suit of sleek black metal armor and the helmet was unmistakably Asgardian. Idly, Thor wondered whether Odin had kept yet another terrifying sibling hidden for him to face unprepared. The power this being emanated was no joke and was more than a match for him.

Suddenly the being spoke, ‘I am Beta Ray Bill and I have come to ask a favor from Thor, The God of Thunder, my truest compatriot and my noblest friend.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger! Yay! Who feels annoyed with me already? Thank you for the kudos! They are much appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

‘Wait a minute, you know this guy?’ Quill shouted, his tone accusatory as he looked at Thor.

‘No, I do not’ Thor returned as he looked at the ominous being looking straight at him, his sense of foreboding eased despite knowing that if it came down to a fight between the monster-machine-man and him there was a very real possibility that he could get killed. He hadn’t felt quite so vulnerable since Thanos and it was not a feeling he cared to experience again.

‘He does not….atleast not in this universe.’ The being who had called himself Beta Ray Bill revealed, for all the obvious grotesqueness, Beta Ray Bill’s eyes seemed somber and kind. It was a jarring contrast to the rest of his appearance but Thor knew bloodthirst when he saw it. Whatever this being wanted, Thor concluded that he did not want to harm them. His power drained out of his body as he relaxed against his seat in the Milano.

‘You mean to tell us that you’re not of this universe? That would mean, the concept of the multiverse is true, no one has been able to prove it so far but if you really are from somewhere else…..Wow! That would be so cool!’ Rocket exclaimed looking absolutely awed. Then his usual cynicism kicked in, ‘That is if you’re not lying to us.’

‘I am not, may I come aboard?’

The crew of the Milano looked at each other, Quill looked peeved but ultimately he nodded.

‘Seems like you can hang out in space just fine without the added trimmings of a space ship’ Rocket interjected after Quill had conveyed his decision to Beta Ray Bill.

‘Oh, skuttlebutt is right here’ Beta Ray Bill waved his left arm and behind him a massive space ship appeared. Its metal surface gleamed even in the darkness of space, just by looking at it, Thor and the rest of the crew could tell it was a warship. Once, when the last of the Asgardians had been stranded on the Statesman with Thor, the ship had been diminutive in comparison to Thanos’ mighty warship that had decimated them in a matter of minutes. But this, the ship looked like it could take on ten of Thanos’ warships. Despite its metal surface, Thor, Groot and Mantis could sense the other ship as though it were a living entity all on its own.

Rocket of course caught on to the one thing that the rest of the guardians had overlooked and loudly guffawed, ‘SCUTTLEBUTT?! Oh my God! And I thought Taserface was the ultimate representation of moronic names. Who names a space ship butt? Ha ha ha!’

The guardians and Thor glared daggers at Rocket but he went on, oblivious to their disapproving expressions.

‘Rocket, have some tact, the space man can jettison us all out of this ship if he snaps his fingers’ Quill muttered in clipped tones, making sure to keep his voice low.

Rocket waved his concern away as he continued laughing, ‘I don’t think a person who names a ship scuttlebutt is going to be a threat to us. Am I right Mr Bill? Seriously though, if you are going to name a ship butt, you should have chosen something like twerkbutt, cause butts can’t scuttle, you know what I mean? Or maybe jiggleboobs or jiggleyboobs’ Rocket continued laughing until he felt himself being picked up and thrown, he landed hard on Drax’ console looking winded.

‘Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!’ Quill muttered again as Rocket got up, scratching his head with his paws.

‘This ship carries the last survivors of the Korbinite race. This ship was the last venture made by the dying people of Korbin to escape total annihilation. Have a care about what you say, little rabbit.’ The voice was laced with contempt and Rocket lifted his hands up in a placating gesture.

Beta Ray Bill easily towered over Thor as he stood inside the Milano, his gaze was unnervingly fixed on Thor as if he was sizing him up for a fight.

Thor returned his gaze steadily, although he had lost quite a bit of the weight he had gained over the past one year, he was still not his usual spry self. He trained when he could but not as hard as he did on Asgard, he carefully looked at how Beta Ray Bill was built and where to strike should this man go back on his word and want to spar with him after all.

‘I can see that you are anxious Thor but fear not, I am not your enemy. I have come here to ask a most extravagant favor of you.’

‘I’m listening’ Thor said, he did not yet know what he thought about there being multiple parallel universes and beings able to cross over from one to another. Tony Stark or Jane may find this to be the most prolific discoveries of the millennia but he was not either of them. To him this only meant that there was more things to worry about now, they had enough supreme beings in this one universe, they were not in any need of any more from other universes causing yet another havoc on this one when the avengers had just managed to save it from total destruction.

‘I need Stormbreaker’

‘Yeah, that’s happening’ Rocket muttered glibly as all the Guardians had equally flummoxed expressions on their faces.

Thor visibly gasped as he held the hammer tighter, ‘No’

Thor’s simple response held all the weight of his anger and resolution behind it. He had almost died in forging Stormbreaker, he was never going to relinquish it to any one, be it God, demon or anything in between.

Beta Ray Bill sighed as his shoulders visibly dropped, ‘I cannot say I did not anticipate this’ one of his enormous hands rubbed at his muzzle, mirroring what humanoid creatures did when they contemplated a solution to their problems. Like everything else about Bill’s gestures, this seemed jarring in contrast to his monstrous appearance. Then in the space of a millisecond, Beta Ray Bill extended his hands and called Stormbreaker to him.

Thor felt more than saw the hammer being ripped from his hands and flying past the air to Bill’s outstretched hands. Thor felt his blood boil as rage like he’d never felt before made his entire body light up with righteous anger.

Before he could call down a lightning bolt and smite Beta Ray Bill where he stood, he saw that the monstrous being no longer looked as it did. In its place was a man, completely humanoid in appearance. And Stormbreaker was no longer Stormbreaker, the man held in his arm what appeared to be a walking stick but what Thor knew to be Stormbreaker.

‘It’s not possible!’ Thor looked stunned as he knew that only enchanted weapons obeyed the call of their master and could be molded into any form or shape the master willed the weapon to take. Unlike Mjolnir which had been enchanted by Odin to be held only by hands that were worthy of its power, Stormbreaker had never had a spell placed upon it.

‘I didn’t know whether it would work the same way in this universe’ Beta Ray Bill looked and sounded relieved.

‘This does not change anything’ Thor returned as he walked forward with both his hands clenched into fists. When he was near enough, he swung his right hand and clocked Beta Ray Bill on the face making the other man stumble as his hands went up to cradle his jaw.

‘Thor, I know how this seems but please, please listen to me. I’m doing this for Asgard.’

Thor who was ready to hit Bill another time paused midway, his hands still clenched into fists, his face still fixed into an expression of absolute outrage and loathing.

‘As…Asgard’ Thor whispered, even saying the name brought back the unbearable pain and longing for his homeworld. His face crumpled as he took a deep breath and stepped back, his hands still clenched tightly into fists, his eyes looking haunted as he said ‘Asgard is destroyed.’

‘In the 616 universe yes, but another Asgard, my Asgard needs Stormbreaker’s power to stop Ragnarok from happening.’

Rocket frowned at Bill, he had not seen Thor looking this unhinged for months, he was finally healing from all the trauma he had experienced in his life recently and now this guy comes out of nowhere and undoes everything. He didn’t particularly care to have this creature aboard the Milano.

‘Alright, Bill with the Butt ship, who do you think you are to take away Thor’s hammer scot free like it belongs to you? It may belong to you in YOUR universe but here Stormbreaker is the property of Thor, how do we know you’re not just going to take the hammer and cause all manner of havoc with it once our backs are turned? I suggest you give back the hammer to Thor now and get off my ship.’ Rocket had his paws on his hips and a menacing expression on his face when he finished speaking.

‘Know your place rabbit, I speak to Thor, not to a two timing thief like you.’

‘Now wait just one minute’ Rocket began, and everyone on the ship knew this was going to be a long rant as he sounded genuinely offended.

‘Why?’ Thor’s voice stopped Rocket in his tracks, he was sitting down with his head between his hands determinedly looking down at the floor, ‘Ragnarok could never be stopped. I believed I could stop it and I failed, fool that I was. Why should having Stormbreaker make any difference? And why did I not come myself to collect it if it would make a difference?’

‘You did not come because in our universe you are dead.’

Thor finally looked up, his demeanor contemptuous as he asked Beta Ray Bill, ‘If what you say is true and there are limitless universes you can apparently freely travel to, why did you not pluck Stormbreaker from another Thor? Why did you not forge a new Stormbreaker in your own universe’ Nidavellir?’

Beta Ray Bill sighed aloud once again, ‘Firstly, I cannot travel to any parallel universe of my choosing. After the Big Bang, many universes were born, this universe one among them. And at their birth some universes were so close together that they touched each other. After eons of all the universes growing ever larger, the places that these universes touched became gateways, some of these gateways permits powerful cosmic beings like you and me to cross into other universes. My universe has only six gateways, therefore I have access only to six universes. And out of them all, you were the Thor who was most likely to give up Stormbreaker to save Asgard, you are the wisest of them all, you have experienced the most meaningful journey among all the Thor’s, including dare I say, my own Thor. Also, you are the Thor who isn’t in dire need of a powerful weapon to fight universe ending beings of the cosmos.’

‘What is that supposed to mean? Of course Thor needs his hammer! Who knows when the next Thanos wannabe is going to show up in OUR universe?’ Rocket quipped having heard enough of the hammer hijacking monster man who was not a monster anymore.

Beta Ray Bill gave Rocket a withering look, ‘The Rabbit does have a point’ Thor stated and Bill addressed Thor again, his voice tinged with desperation.

‘I meant no offence, I only meant to say in this universe you are not in immediate need of Stormbreaker. I would only be borrowing the hammer until I can put an end to beings who wish to cause Ragnarok and destroy Asgard in my universe.’ Beta Ray Bill then walked forward and Thor stood up in response, what happened next was not something Thor or any of the Guardians would have anticipated as Bill kneeled before Thor and offered Stormbreaker to him with both hands. ‘At the end of the day, I can only implore you to grant my favor my King. I hope and pray that you will choose to save any Asgard and her people from being obliterated by Ragnarok.’

‘I’m not a King, do not kneel to me’ said Thor but Bill remained kneeling as he replied ‘You are a King, a brother, and a friend to me. In any universe, in a thousand lifetimes.’

‘Walk with me, Beta Ray Bill’ Thor said as he moved away from the Guardians to his own quarters on the ship.

‘That’s great! Now he’s trying to keep secrets from us!’ Rocket swore angry that Thor was choosing to trust some bizarre monster who claimed to be from another universe but not the Guardians whom he had known for years together.

Once they were out of the Guardians’ earshot, the God of Thunder paused and looked at Beta Ray Bill, ‘Is it Hela?’ Just saying the name of his abomination of a sibling made him want to beat something up.

Bill frowned as he said ‘It’s better if I don’t tell you anything.’

‘Why? It seems to me that you know everything that has happened to me in this universe.’

‘Not everything, I only know bits and pieces, the Norns gave me sufficient knowledge to choose which Thor I wanted to approach. Nothing else.’

‘Is…in your universe, is Loki alive?’ Thor couldn’t help but ask it, couldn’t help but long for an Asgard he never knew and for a family that he didn’t belong to. For the first time in a long time, he felt the bitter clutches of envy wrap around his heart as he looked at Beta Ray Bill and thought about a man who was not Thor possibly ending up saving Asgard from certain doom.

‘Yes, he is.’

Thor gasped, that simple response filled him with desire, hope bloomed in his chest even as he tried to tell himself that it was not his brother, not his Loki, who for all his faults ended up dying a hero.

He looked at Stormbreaker clutched in Beta Ray Bill’s hands, somehow it seemed to belong.

‘What happens to my hammer if you die and can’t prevent Ragnarok?’

‘If I do not return your hammer within one Asgardian season, you can retrieve it from Eitri who lives on Alfheim under the protection of Queen Aelsa and the light elves.’

Thor could guess from that response that Nidavellir was probably out of commission in Bill’s universe as well. ‘And how am I supposed to retrieve it when I don’t know where this universe jumping Gateway is?’

‘I will entrust you and the Guardians with the location of the Gateway. I understand how big a leap of faith I am asking you to take Thor, you can still say no but I hope you do not.’

‘I hate being a benevolent God’ Thor griped one last time before he nodded at Beta Ray Bill, ‘I cannot let any Asgard fall if there is the slightest chance of her being saved. You can have the hammer.’

‘Thank you’ Bill’s voice was filled with gratitude and Thor felt chagrined at feeling so deeply envious of this person who claimed to be his loyal friend in another universe. A universe where Asgard still stood, Loki and his people still lived.

Hours passed as the Guardians of the Galaxy flew past stars and planets in the infinite vastness of space. They were all buckled in, Quill listening to music with his headphones was tapping his feet and shaking his head to the music, Drax was trying to prove to everyone for the umpteenth time that he had secret powers of invisibility by slowly moving his hand towards his console for the past half hour, Groot was engaged in playing his video games, his head and legs dangling out of the chair, Thor was looking straight ahead without seeing anything, he hadn’t spoken to any of them ever since Bill the Butt ship captain had left with his trusty hammer.

Rocket couldn’t take it anymore and he jumped down from his seat turned and walked determinedly towards Thor.

Once he was close enough, he drew back his paws as far as it would go and slapped the Thunder God hard making Thor blink.

Quill, Drax and Groot paused what they were doing as Rocket shouted in Thor’s face ‘What were you thinking? Handing over such a powerful weapon to a random alien who is stupid enough to name his ship scuttlebutt! What are we gonna do if another crapsack like Thanos shows up eh? What will you do? Go make another hammer and die trying?’

Thor looked bemused with Rocket’s tantrum which only made Rocket want to hit the buffoon harder.

‘What did you expect me to do? Let Asgard and Asgardians be destroyed in another universe? I could never live with myself if I had let it happen. Besides, I’ve given up the job of being protector of the Nine realms and savior extraordinaire of the universe. If anyone else needs saving they’re going to have to call someone else.’

‘That’s the point Thor, there is no one else, there’s just you for this universe.’

‘Aww you are sweet rabbit, but I digress, I’m sick and tired of being expected to save everyone’s ass. I’m living for myself now and I intend to continue to do so.’ Thor got up and left to his room within the Milano as Rocket sighed.

‘You gotta give him time Rocket, a guy doesn’t just get over losing his home and his family easily. And with his lifespan it’s probably going to take him a thousand years to become some semblance of the man he used to be before he lost everything.’

‘I know Quill, I just thought he was getting better you know, I didn’t think he’d let some random Bill take away his hammer like it was a toy of no particular value to him. We don’t even know if this Bill isn’t just going to turn around and attack us and our universe with the hammer in his possession.’

‘Thor trusts him, Stormbreaker trusts him, and he didn’t harm us when he could have blown us out of the sky and fought Thor for the hammer.’

‘Yeah….but it’s still fishy to me.’

As Thor laid down with half his legs hanging out on what constituted for a bed on the Milano, he thogut of Asgard, of its golden towers, of the light reflecting off the rainbow bridge, of Heimdall’s staunch but kind eyes, of his mother trying to instill some magical talent in him only to fondly ruffle his hair as he proved himself totally inept, of chasing Loki through the castle’s courtyard as they got up to all kinds of mischief as young boys were wont to do, of Odin’s stern and reassuring presence that loomed over them all menacingly and yet was a rock upon which they all relied to keep them safe. Of wars little and great, of feasts grand and somber, of music, dancing and merry making. A single tear dripped from his real eye as he was overcome with a sense of longing so fierce he thought he was going to burst into a million wisps of light like his father had on Midgard. He couldn’t help but wonder about another Asgard in another universe, Beta Ray Bill had revealed to him that Loki was still alive in his Asgard, did that mean his mother and father were still alive? Was Mjolnir’s might insufficient in the face of Hela? Could he have really defeated Hela in this universe if he had just had Stormbreaker’s power? If he could have then why did Odin fail to tell him of the existence of such a weapon? Odin, people always called Loki the father of Lies but Odin put his adopted son to shame in that area. If Loki was the father, Odin was the Allfather of Lies.

Thor fell into an uneasy slumber, his mind in total disarray, when he woke he knew not how long after, a golden circle hung above him, and from his vantage point he could see the Earths’ wizard looking at him with his hands crossed, mild disapproval etched in his face as Thor crossed his arms behind his head and squinted with his real eye, refusing to stand up just yet.

‘Thor, we need you.’


	5. Chapter 5

‘What is it now?’ Thor asked of Stephen Strange, Earth’s wizard. That the wizard had come this far must mean that it was nothing good.

‘We have a situation back on Earth and we need your help’

The wizard’s voice was as solemn as the first time Thor had ever met him, his suspended form lent more credence to his personality and made him look like he had the gravitas for his position as Master of the Mystic Arts as people in Midgard called him.

‘Thor, I’m sorry I slapped you. Can I come in?’

The rabbits timing couldn’t be more impeccable, Doctor Strange looked mildly amused and Thor said in a gruff voice ‘Just a little bit of play wrestling between friends.’

‘I’m sure’ Doctor Strange said, like he was humoring him.

Thor sighed, the wizard was not going to go away without at least getting Thor to hear what he had to say and he’d rather not be unceremoniously shoved and shuffled by the wizard so he stood up.

‘Thor, come on buddy, I was just concerned, for you and for all of us. Please open the door, it’s been two days since you locked yourself up inside.’

Thor quickly walked to the door and opened it before the rabbit could make him look more pathetic that he was feeling right now.

Rocket walked in, ‘Oh it’s the wizard! How’s Earth these days?’

‘Earth is…not doing so well at the moment.’

Rocket and Thor looked at each other before they both directed their gazes to Dr Strange.

‘So I’m guessing this isn’t just a social call?’

‘No it’s not. We need your help.’

‘What’s the situation? Is it the minor someone turned everyone to mindless zombies kind of situation or the major universe ending tyrannical overlord kind of situation? Cause, we don’t do minor gigs anymore.’

Doctor Strange looked at Rocket like he hadn’t seen such a complete buffoon in his entire life and then slowly he said ‘If I had to explain it in those terms, I’d say it was the latter.’

‘Alright, count us in’ Rocket declared.

Thor wasn’t so quickly convinced however, ‘What’s happened?’

‘You should come see for yourself, you can land atop the sanctum, I’ve cleared out space for your ship.’ It was clear to Rocket and Thor that the master of the mystic arts expected them to travel to Earth using their usual means of travel, the bifrost.

‘Yeah…about that, Thor doesn’t have his hammer with him now so we can’t just summon the bifrost and get to Earth pronto like we used to.’

Genuine alarm colored Dr Strange’s posture as he asked Thor, ‘What? Why?’

Thor cleared his throat, ‘I have lent it for the time being to a friend in need of it.’

‘Who is this friend? Some Asgardian who escaped Ragnarok?’ Dr Strange probed.

‘A friend. That is all you need to know Wizard’ Thor’s countenance was stubborn but Dr Strange was having none of it.

‘That hammer would be a formidable weapon for any of our enemies to use against us.’

‘I told you!’ Rocket interjected pointing one furry finger at Thor.

‘As master of the mystic arts it is my duty to keep watch on all artifacts that might be used against Earth. You will tell me where the hammer is.’

‘I will not’ Thor didn’t budge.

The wizard looked at Rocket, ‘Don’t you dare rabbit’ Thor threatened but Rocket just sighed and shook his head.

‘He gave it someone called Beta Ray Bill, he claimed he was from another parallel universe and wanted Thor’s hammer to stop Ragnarok in his universes version of Asgard.’

‘Ragnarok is unstoppable, you know this, Odin knew this’

‘And you would know this with absolute certainty, is it not? Then going by your reasoning, we should have never tried to undo the damage Thanos did, because Thanos was inevitable just as Ragnarok is. But that’s not the case for you because when it comes to your precious Earth, your reasoning becomes flexible. How dare you question me about wanting to save my home?’ Thor shouted as his voice reverberated through the interior of the ship making the guardians rush to see what had happened.

‘What’s going on here?’ Quill barged in, Drax, Mantis and Groot right behind him.

‘I am Groot?’

‘Hey, don’t fry the space ship! Thor, calm down!’ Rocket spoke loudly as Thor’s entire body thrummed and crackled with lightning.

‘He is furious’ Mantis whispered.

‘Doctor, please let me speak to him’

They all heard a voice coming from Dr Strange’s portal but they were unable to see who was speaking.

‘Are you sure? I…don’t think he would take the revelation very well…under the circumstances.’

‘Its fine, I want to speak to him.’

Doctor Strange stepped aside and a strange woman walked into view, she was bedecked in full Asgardian armor complete with the winged silver helmet that he wore as a Prince on Asgard, her arms were bare of scale mail but everything else was the same as his own armor. The helmet completely obscured half of her face, leaving only her lips visible, thin wisps of white hair framed her face, falling down to her shoulders. Thor had a bad feeling about this, and his heart plummeted as he followed the line of her flowing red cape and looked down at her hands. Mjolnir. His mighty hammer, his ever faithful companion, his birthright. This woman was holding it.

‘No’ he whispered before the full force of his outrage erupted in a flash of lightning towards the usurper who has holding his Mjolnir as if it belonged to them.

The woman, whoever she was, quickly lifted up Mjolnir in defense as the hammer absorbed all the power leaving her unscathed.

‘You know after all this time with the Avengers, I’d have thought you would have learned to look before you leap Thor.’

The woman removed her helmet and Thor gasped loudly, his expression comically stupefied.

Quill whistled, ‘Wow’

‘Jane?’ Thor looked completely at a loss for words as he tried to reconcile the image before him.

‘This is Jane? Like Jane Jane?’ Quill asked still eyeing Jane with appreciation, ‘You look so much better than Thor wearing that outfit!’

Jane looked at Quill, ‘Who are you again?’

Quill stepped forward and offered his hand as Jane took it reluctantly, ‘I’m Peter Quill, people usually call me Starlord and I’m the captain of the guardians and this ship. Thor has told us a lot about you.’

‘You told your friends about me?’ Jane exclaimed with the same sense of wonder as she had what seemed a lifetime ago in Asgard when she’d met his father Odin.

She was looking right at Thor now and he felt himself freeze as he did on Asgard when him and Rocket were conducting their time heist and trying to extract the aether from Jane.

‘I might have mentioned your name in passing when I was telling them about how I came to be on Midgard.’ Thor stated, hoping he’d sufficiently downplayed it as an everyday occurrence.

‘Right…’ Jane said ‘How are you?’

Thor shrugged, ‘Good, very good, how are you? How did you’ Thor pointed at her outfit and Mjolnir and waved his hands, ‘How did that happen?’

‘It’s a long story’ Jane sighed, ‘We need you. Earth needs you.’

‘Doesn’t seem like it to me, you seem to have it all covered’ Thor couldn’t help the bite in his tone. This was the last thing he expected to see in his long long life. Sure, Steve had been able to pick up his hammer during their battle with Thanos but Steve was his friend, he had more than earned his worthiness through the years of battling for Earth and the safety of its citizens. He could not for the life of him wrap his head around how Jane was able to pick up Mjolnir and how Mjolnir was even on Earth to be picked up. He had been assured that Steve had returned all the infinity stones and his hammer to exactly the time and place they took it from. Had Nick Fury lied to him? Had they kept Mjolnir for safekeeping on Earth without telling him and how was Jane even able to lift the hammer? She was completely mortal, she had none of the super senses of Steve Rogers, her body was as fragile as any mortals. How had Mjolnir judged her as worthy of wielding it?

‘Thor, I understand you’re upset about this, I’ll explain everything to you once you’re here. I can’t fight this fight without you Thor, Earth can’t’ Jane’s voice was imploring and Thor never could say no to her when she looked like that. He capitulated and stepped through the portal.

‘What about us?’ Rocket asked once Thor was on the other side.

‘If the rest of your crew agree with your decision to put yourselves in peril by coming to Earth’s aid, I will make a portal for your ship to arrive at the sanctum.’

‘Count us in! I have hungered for a proper war ever since I left my homeworld. We always had wars.’

Rocket put his head in his hands, ‘Drax, someday that fat mouth of yours is gonna get you in a shit ton of trouble, and maybe then you’ll learn to speak in metaphors.’

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as the portal closed behind him, Thor crossed his arms and turned to Jane expectantly.

‘That is not a trifling weapon’ he said pointing at Mjolnir in her hands trying hard not to just snatch it back. Stormbreaker may be more powerful but nothing could ever compare to Mjolnir for him. ‘You could die from wielding it, your mortal form is not strong enough to withstand its power.’

Strange cleared his throat and said ‘I’ll leave you two to your uh….’ he grimaced and then walked out leaving Jane and Thor alone in the hall of the sanctum.

Jane looked at Thor and said ‘Well, it hasn’t killed me yet. And, I’m not exactly merely mortal anymore.’

‘What?’

Jane’s new platinum blond tresses turned to their usual brown, her Asgardian garb wore away to be replaced with jeans, thick overcoat and a scarf, the sanctum disappeared, Thor and Jane now stood in the desert of New Mexico and Thor could see the markings of the Bifrost on the sand as he had when he’d first been banished to Earth.

‘Remember this place?’ Jane asked with a small smile on her face and Thor couldn’t help but smile back at her.

‘What is this? Have you become a wizard now too? Did you…train with this Stephen Strange?’ Thor couldn’t think of any other explanation as to how Jane was able to do what she had just done. He was very sure that they were still in the wizards New York sanctum.

‘No, I’m able to manipulate reality because the reality stone gave me the ability to.’

Thor frowned, things did not add up, he was sure that Cap returned all the infinity stones at the exact time that they had plucked them from. They had been warned of alternate realities and the endless nightmares that could ensue if they were to misplace any of them.

‘Steve returned the stones to their proper timelines, this…should not be possible.’

‘Yeah, but he was 0.005 seconds late in replacing the reality stone, plenty of time for the aether to wise up. It understood that we were going to destroy it, so the second time around it left a part of itself in me, a part that could not be destroyed or drawn out.’

When Thor was silent for a long time, Jane changed back into her Asgardian armor and they were once again standing in the hall of Doctor Strange’s sanctum.

‘So basically, I got super powers because Captain America’s watch broke. Well, technically somebody made a calibration error or didn’t note down the exact point in time to return the stone to but that’s the gist of it. We’ve been investigating whether a similar situation has happened with all the other stones too.’

It was heartening to see Jane trying to explain the exact science of how it happened to Thor and as she was wont to do, her mind raced a mile a minute as her words tried to catch up. No matter how different she looked, she was still Jane, awkward but brilliant Jane Foster. Thor realized suddenly that he was being a complete asshole as Quill and Rocket would say, the first time the aether took hold of Jane, it had nearly killed her.

‘Jane, are you alright? The aether, is it making you sick?’

Jane shook her head, ‘No…no, it’s not like the entire thing is in me, just a tiny fraction of it. Like I said, the aether wised up, symbiosis was the only way it could survive. And it needs me to survive now.’

‘It still doesn’t explain Mjolnir’

‘Oh, Mjolnir is a very recent development’ Jane said as Thor narrowed his eyes at her.

‘May I?’ Thor asked, Jane nodded and Thor called Mjolnir to him.

A second later, he felt the comforting weight of the hammer in his hands and grinned.

‘Still worthy!’ Thor was relieved, his father may have said he was not the God of Hammers but how could Odin understand how much Mjolnir was a part of his identity, he’d had his hammer for more than ten centuries now.

‘Of course you are, how could you not be? After everything you’ve done for Earth, for the universe?’

‘I was the reason the universe needed saving in the first place Jane.’

‘No, you’re not. You tried your best, even though you knew it could very well end your own life.’

Jane walked closer to him then and hugged him, he froze in place for a minute before he put his arms around her and squeezed her tightly to himself. He had never realized how much he had missed this, missed her, how many days and nights he had spent wanting exactly this, looking back he couldn’t believe he’d had the strength to leave her.

He didn’t know how long they remained like that when finally Jane pulled away, she stepped back looking unsure. ‘The doctor will get you up to speed on what’s happening. We’ll…uh…we’ll meet back at the new Avengers’ headquarters.’

‘Jane..’ Thor started but she was already gone, disappearing from thin air like Loki used to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jane at last! Did you like it? Did you hate it? How do you think Jane will get her powers in Thor 4?


	6. Chapter 6

Jane had no idea what came over her, she should not have gone and hugged Thor like that, she didn’t like that one look at him made her want to forget all the pain their separation had put her through. But there she was, a mortal woman clamoring for a God’s affection yet again. She needed to get her head straight about this, what Thor and she used to have was over. She couldn’t let him and his charms affect her like this, they had a job to do now.

In that moment, he had looked so lost, so tortured that she couldn’t help but give him a small measure of comfort. Even though they had broken up, she had followed all the stories of the Avengers on the news, not to mention the information she knew from SHIELD operatives over the years. She knew that most of his people were now refugees on Earth, that his planet had literally blown up in front of his eyes, that he’d lost all of his family members and that he blamed himself for what Thanos had done to them all.

Jane changed out of the armor and got back into her own clothes, the feeling of real clothes made of wool and denim making her feel at least a little like a normal person. She had no idea how Captain America had managed to wear that spandex suit for all those years. If she was glad about one thing, it was the abject lack of spandex in Asgardian armor.

How has my life turned into a freak circus? She contemplated this question as she searched through her desk drawer for a paper file she’d kept in it. Her apartment in the all new Avengers’ tower wasn’t as extravagant as some of others’ were, when they’d asked her what she needed, she’d specifically requested them to not give her some magnificent penthouse that would make her feel completely out of place. To her surprise, they’d actually complied with her wishes. She suspected Peter Parker had something to do with that, as much as she liked Tony Stark, Peter was just endearing in a very different way.

Once she had everything she needed, she hurried out of her apartment, her apartments were on the ground floor, she walked into the hallway and went straight for the lift which like the previous Avengers’ tower was the centerpiece of this building. The conference room was on the third floor and she quickly checked her handwritten notes, making sure she hadn’t left anything out.

The Avengers’ tower still had the sleek glass doors, white walls and tasteful décor as the previous one. However, there were random things and possessions scattered about the building that made it seem more lived in. If it weren’t for her super powers, she would have tripped over a rubber ball that she inadvertently stepped on in her hurry to get to the conference room. The new Avengers’ tower also had Morgan Stark, who basically ran it like her own little kingdom.

Jane sighed as she picked up the ball and put it in one of her pockets. She’d thought she’d have her own children by now, she was thirty one years old and once upon a time she’d foolishly wondered if she would be able to have Thor’s children. Thor, Jane thunked her head against the wall of the elevator as she realized he was probably in the conference room with the others now. All this time, she’d been able to put her heartbreak out of her mind by not thinking about him too much, she’d figured she’d never have to see him again in her life, she would move on. And she had tried, this time with real intent, she’d committed to someone, determined to put the past behind her, it had only resulted in years of jumping from one partner to another as her mind shied away from anyone who wanted more than a noncommittal relationship. She wasn’t proud of how she’d coped after he left her, casually explaining that he had bigger responsibilities to Asgard and the nine realms.

She could feel her heart beating faster as she exited the elevator on the third floor, she shook her head, ‘Get it together Jane, get it together’ she whispered as she straightened her back, giving herself a pep talk. She was going to go in there, act professional, put aside her feelings for Thor and see this mission through.

She was the last latecomer to the meeting. Sam, Peter, Thor, Strange, Banner and the Guardians were all sitting around a large table, a holo screen flashing above them.

‘Where’s Scott?’ she asked as he seemed to be the only person missing in the room.

It was Strange who answered, ‘We decided it would be better for him to not know what we discuss here. We don’t want to repeat what happened with Thanos.’

‘Right’ Jane said, she’d read all about how Thanos had gotten into a robotic aliens’ head to extract information of the time heist the avengers were planning.

‘I think it would be wise for you to lead the discussion Dr Jane, you have the most information on this situation.’

‘Right’ nice of Dr Strange to let her do all the heavy lifting, Thor was looking at her piercingly from the other side of the table and she cleared her throat as she looked away from him.

‘We’re on the verge of facing a villain like no other before, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that he’s even worse than Thanos.’ Jane projected an image on the holoscreen, the image on the screen showed a figure that wasn’t exactly inspiring of fear like Thanos was, face completely blue in color, the alien was wearing what looked like futuristic armor that was deep purple in color interspersed with a dark green shirt. His head was completely covered with the purple armor leaving only his face visible.

Rocket started laughing, clapping his paws on his thighs, ‘Looks like somebody with color blindness and used to dressing clowns decided to dress this guy in that ridiculous outfit! The only place I’ve seen people dressing so garishly is on Sakar. You’re telling me this gleeman is the person we’re supposed to consider as more fearsome than Thanos?’

Rocket continued laughing as Jane frowned and narrowed her eyes at the talking raccoon.

‘You are right about Sakar, their color schemes are horribly tasteless’ Thor said, making them all look at him as he screwed his face up into an expression of total disgust.

‘You’ve been to Sakar?’ Rocket exclaimed, ‘How come you never told me that?’

‘Well, it wasn’t exactly one of the more memorable experiences of my life. Though it was fun to beat the Hulk in the shit show they called contest of champions.’

‘You did not beat me’ Hulk looked at Thor like he was being preposterous to even think Thor could have beaten him in single combat.

‘I did too’ Thor insisted, ‘easily at that!’

‘Personally, I would have loved to see that fight!’ Peter exclaimed.

Jane cleared her throat loudly as everyone looked up at her. ‘If you are all quite done being juvenile.’

Thor looked chastened, but Rocket folded his arms in front of him adamantly. ‘So what’s this clown’s story?’

‘He’s Kang, the Conqueror. A human from 3012 AD who has developed the ability to manipulate the time stream to travel forward and backward in time. That purple and green dress you called clownish is actually a time suit that allows him to instantly travel to any point in time.’

‘That’s neat, so what does this Kang want? Why is he of concern to us?’ It was Quill who asked the question.

‘Because for reasons unknown, Kang is disposing off the people on Earth, we have it on good authority that he’s transported them to a time where they are all currently working as slaves in his army. Right now, around five thousand people around the world have gone missing and everyday there are more who are disappearing.’

Jane’s concern was palpable and everyone in the room suddenly took their proceedings seriously.

‘Why don’t we just use Mr Stark’s time travel GPS again and just capture this Kang from his timeline?’ asked Peter.

‘Sounds like a straightforward plan! I second it!’ Thor added.

‘It’s not quite that easy’ Dr Strange said, ‘Kang always has his time suit on his person….along with other accoutrements. If we confront him directly, he can just take himself out of that time line. We’ll be left to chase wild geese as we try to find out where in time he has transported himself to.’

‘Also, he has a kingdom in the quantum universe and many people who work for him as agents. If we travel through the quantum universe, there’s a good chance we’ll be captured, killed or transported to another timeline ourselves.’

‘Why is this d-hole doing it in the first place? What’s his motive?’ Rocket interjected.

‘We don’t know yet, but we’re working on getting information. This is not the first time Kang has travelled to a past version of the Earth.’ Jane projected what appeared to be an ancient Egyptian King on to the holo screen. ‘This is Rama Tut, an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh who ruled Egypt from 315 B.C. to 325 B.C., it is speculated that Kang in this time period used a ray gun that was able to remove a person’s will and turn them into his slaves, much like Loki’s scepter did for Erik and Agent Barton.’ Jane projected twenty more pictures of different people from different time periods on Earth, reciting what Kang did in that particular timeline.

‘These are all the versions of him that we know, there’s no telling what other versions of him exist in the future’ Jane finished. 

‘Or versions of him in other universes’ Doctor Strange said which made got him confused looks from all of them except Thor, the guardians and Jane.

Doctor Strange quickly explained what had happened with Thor’s Stormbreaker which garnered Thor quite a bit of disapproval from the remaining Avengers.

‘Great, now we have to worry about other universes villains’ Sam said looking thoroughly annoyed.

‘So if we can’t actually catch this guy, then what are we all here for?’ Quill asked, it seemed to him that they were still not getting to the point of this particular conference of Earth’s mightiest heroes, version 2.0.

‘We’re here to make sure Kang doesn’t abduct more people from the Earth. In all his previous excursions to other timelines, Kang has never actually captured people and transported them to another timeline. He’s only ever travelled to the past and exerted his will on the inhabitants in that timeline. This time, it’s different. He’s not here, he sends his chronogogues to kidnap people from this timeline.’

‘Chronogogues?’ It was Thor who asked the question, in all his travels across the nine realms he had never heard tell of anything called chronogogues.

‘Yeah, Kang’s henchmen if you will. He sends them to Earth to abduct his victims, they have a limited amount of power to travel in time in the direction of the past. They’ve been quite hard to contain when we encounter them.’

The holo screen now projected what appeared to be humanoid creatures, their skin was yellow, their eye balls protruded out from their foreheads looking like little tunnels as they led back to the twin pitch black holes, they were all wearing a uniform brown suite, they carried a huge gun which appeared to be powered by some form of laser and several other gadgetry that no one in the room was familiar with. Suddenly the chronogogues on the screen started chanting.

‘ _We are the warriors of time_

_We are the artisans of reality_

_We are makers, we are destroyers_

_We are one with Kang_

_The mighty conqueror of all that was and all that shall ever be_

_Bow unto us_

_And welcome his sovereign reign.’_

‘Well, at least they are less pretentious than Thanos’ henchmen’ Sam said as he scoffed.

‘So what is our plan?’ Peter jumped in to ask, looking wide eyed and enthusiastic.

Thor frowned, ‘When did we start allowing children to be a part of the Avengers?’

‘I am not a child man!’

‘Are you sure? Cos you look like one’ Quill said as Peter’s cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

‘Oh look, he’s even blushing like a maiden’ Thor taunted.

‘And how old are you by Earth standards anyways to be calling him a kid? I’m sure this Peter Parker doesn’t go around throwing and breaking stuff like a tantrum-y child, which is what you do to..’ Rocket never got to finish his sentence as Thor interrupted him loudly.

‘I am 22 and 2 weeks old by Earth’s standards, I’m not a kid.’

Jane and everyone else around the room turned to look at Thor with varying degrees of shock. Jane opened and closed her mouth, clearly perturbed by Thor’s revelation.

Thor having noticed her countenance asked, ‘Jane? Is something wrong?’

Jane blinked and quickly shook her head, she muttered ‘Nothing’ but Thor could tell that the information on his age bothered her deeply.

Banner cleared his throat, he mimicked zipping his lips, signaling Thor to be quiet.

Thor decided to let it drop for now, he was certainly going to bring this up with Jane in the future though.

Doctor Strange rose up from where he was seated, ‘Know thy enemy. We cannot hope to defeat Kang without knowing why he’s doing what he’s doing. This is our first objective.’

‘How are we supposed to find anything about a futuristic war lord who can travel through time without being able to travel through time using the quantum universe?’ asked Banner, he waved his good hand around the table as he looked at all the people assembled in the room, ‘It’s not like we can obtain information on someone who is from a thousand years into the future.’

Doctor Strange looked at them all calculatingly, he sighed.

‘What aren’t you telling us wizard?’ Thor asked leaning forward in his seat and looking at Strange intently.

‘We do have someone who can help us, you’re not going to like this. None of you are’ Dr Strange’s voice was matter-of-factly as he waved his hand, opened a portal and someone Thor never thought he would see again in his life materialized through the portal.

His shocked breath was audible to everyone in the room as he whispered a single name reverentially, ‘Loki.’


	7. Chapter 7

Thor paced inside his room in the New Avengers tower, this was turning out to be a week that was full of surprises. Dredging up people and memories from the past that Thor could do without. He hardly knew what to make of Loki being undead again.

As the tower was still under construction, Rocket and Groot were sharing his apartment with him. Rocket was happily munching on some Earth delicacy called pecan pie, he swore it was the best thing he’d ever tasted in the universe.

‘Would you stop with that nonstop walking? It’s giving me a headache’ Rocket said which garnered him a glare from Thor.

‘I just found out that another version of my dead brother is alive, a brother whose death I’ve mourned and re-mourned for the past two decades, the fates are so cruel that out of all the versions of my brother that could have survived, it is the evil one who despises me utterly, my ex-girlfriend is some super hero now and is somehow able to lift my trusty hammer Mjolnir, I had to give up Stormbreaker for the off chance of saving another Asgard from Ragnarok. Excuse me if my predicament has me a little unhinged, if you had an ounce of humanity in you, you would be less bothered by my walking and more bothered with being a supportive friend!’

‘Oh brother, to think you’ve fallen so far that you seek comfort in a vermin is beyond satisfying.’

‘Vermin?’ Rocket muttered in indignation but something about Thor’s haunted expression made him stop talking.

Loki was standing inside the hall, looking at his surroundings with no small amount of disdain. Thor immediately found the nearest object which happened to be a vase and through it at Loki, the vase passed through the apparition and shattered on the floor.

Loki opened his hands and raised an eyebrow in a ‘What did you expect, for me to spare the time to actually come here?’ gesture. Thor had mixed feelings about seeing this Loki, this was a time where Loki truly despised him. He had no doubts that should an opportunity present itself, Loki would stab him straight through the heart.

‘Loki, what manner of trickery are you here to play? You cannot honestly expect me to believe that you want to help us.’

‘Well I’d certainly like to help you reduce all those excess stones you seem to have acquired. Tell me brother, does your Earthling still find you attractive? Because from the way she acts one would think you’ve sunken pretty low in her opinion as well.’

Thor banked his anger and did not take the bait, ‘You know nothing of what has transpired after you escaped with the tesseract, you may think yourself capable of only mischief and chaos Loki. But I know better, no matter how much you pretend otherwise, you are my brother and you love me as I love you.’

This seemed to throw Loki off guard as he visibly looked horrified by what Thor had said. Minutes passed as Loki stood silently trying to gauge Thor.

Thor could understand his younger brother’s confusion, he’d always been easy to anger before Thanos and the snap. Loki had taken advantage of Thor’s temperament for centuries, it must be troubling for him to find a Thor who wasn’t so easily fazed by his needling.

Finally he said, ‘If you loved me brother, you would not have been so keen to chain me and take me to Odin to face a public execution.’

Loki disappeared before Thor could answer back, Thor sighed and looked down at his tummy. He was still slightly paunchy, he didn’t think it was all that noticeable but now that Loki had so cruelly pointed it out he wondered whether Jane really did find him unattractive. She had been a little standoffish to him, they hadn’t even seen each other once their meeting was over and that was a week ago. It wasn’t even like there were the daunting distance of realms separating them now, they were living in the same building. Was it really that unreasonable for him to expect her to at least visit once?

Rocket sighed, he couldn’t stand the moping any longer.

‘Why don’t you just go and see her? I was in the kitchen for a snack today and I may have heard she often trains with The Falcon in hand to hand combat.’

Thor perked up at that, in the past Jane was not a person prone to taking an interest in physical combat. Her powers must have changed her mind. It wouldn’t appear as though he were desperate to see her if he just casually dropped by the training area.

‘That’s an excellent idea Rabbit! You’re a most kind friend.’

Rocket rolled his eyes and muttered ‘God children…’

* * *

Thor was in the training room, he was standing in front of a punching bag and hitting it the way he’d seen Steve do on multiple occasions. He wasn’t wearing gloves as his hands were much stronger than a mortals. He’d asked Stark’s all seeing all knowing Friday about Jane’s schedule and he’d come earlier hoping he’d catch her in one of her training sessions with the man called Falcon.

He wasn’t disappointed, the all-seeing Friday was as trustworthy as Heimdall had been on Asgard. Jane came in with the one they called Falcon. She was wearing a tight sports bra and tight yoga capris in black which hugged her figure and left nothing to the imagination, Thor found himself feeling aroused as he watched her with hungry eyes. She’d put on a little muscle in her legs, thighs and arms, though her waist remained as small as it had always been. It had been so long since he’d last made love to her. Previously when they’d been together, Jane always wore very sensible clothing, he’d never seen her in anything like the dresses Nat wore for example. Thor rarely ever saw her dressed in deliberately provocative garments. He rather liked this new development.

That was until he noticed he wasn’t the only person who was admiring the view. The Falcon was eyeing her form with open appreciation and Jane was smiling at him and laughing at whatever the mortal was saying to her. Thor growled and gave the punching bag a smack with all his Godly force behind it and the punching bag flew across the room having been cut loose from its string, it came to land squarely at the Falcons foot as both Jane and him took notice of Thor’s presence.

‘Thor, what are you doing here?’ Jane asked evidently surprised to see him out and about.

‘What does it look like I’m doing?’ Thor quipped and Jane’s eyes widened at his snappy tone.

‘I know what you’re doing, you know those punching bags are not for throwing around the training room, you could have hurt someone.’ Jane admonished and Thor had the decency to look sheepish as he apologized and said he’d lost control and forgotten about mortal contraptions’ limitations. 

Jane narrowed her eyes and when Thor continued to look adorably shamed she said in a softer tone, ‘Just be careful next time you use any of the equipment.’

Thor nodded and then got onto the walker machine, he was sure the machine was somehow related to milling but he couldn’t for the life of him remember its name, perhaps it was walker-mill. He would never understand mortals and their proclivities even if he lived among them for the next thousand years. Only they could build something as useless as a machine for walking. Still, the walker-mill gave him a good view of Jane and the Falcon, so it would suffice.

‘Don’t mind me, carry on’ Thor said, pasting a wide smile on his face as he began to walk on the walker-mill.

Jane looked unsure about it but the Falcon said something that put her at ease. They started by doing some stretches.

Thor groaned silently as Jane bent down to touch her toes with her fingers, she repeated this motion several times and then moved on to even more challenging exercises that had Thor questioning whether she was learning to become a contortionist.

‘Alright, I think we can start now’ said the Falcon.

Despite himself, Thor was actually interested in seeing Jane in combat with the Falcon. In Asgard, female warriors were a rarity and they trained and learned alongside the men about how to fight and play to their strengths in battle. If males were taught to wield weapons that required brute force, women were taught to wield weapons that required agility and grace. The Valkyrie, the elite force of women warriors were all dead by the time Thor was born. He now knew that they had all perished in their last stand against Hela and ever since, females in Asgard were discouraged from being warriors. In his own lifetime, he only knew of Lady Sif and a few other women warriors in Asgard.

Jane however was so small that sometimes he felt a strong gust of wind could blow her over. She was considerably shorter and would promptly lose any fight against a seasoned Asgardian warrior. But perhaps, she had learned enough to beat a mortal man such as the Falcon.

As this was hand to hand combat, they started circling each other, one waiting for the other to advance and deal the first blow. At last it was the Falcon who threw the first punch which Jane dodged easily and moved back, the Falcon didn’t stop, he pressed his attack as Jane was forced into a defensive position. At last the Falcon tripped her legs, forcing her down on the ground, before he could press his attack however, Jane rolled away and with one swift and graceful motion got back on her feet. She then proceeded to do a roundhouse kick which landed true, finding the Falcons left flank as he lost balance and tilted sideways. Jane pressed her advantage, kicking him again on his exposed left side. Thor was rather proud of Jane, she was turning out to be a decent fighter. He watched closely as she threw more punches and forced the Falcon into the defensive position. She did not watch her footing however and when she threw her next punch the Falcon caught her hands, swiped her feet from under her and they both landed hard on the mat. The Falcon held her in a tight vice like grip as they both panted loudly, obviously winded after their sparring match.

Thor felt himself feeling acutely and painfully jealous, how he wished he could just zap the mortal away from Jane, carry her back up to his apartments and show her who she belonged to again.

The Falcon finally released her and Jane sat up, her hair formed a disheveled halo around her face, sunlight illuminating her now blond hair making it look almost golden, there was a slight sheen of sweat on her face and Thor was once again reminded of what a beautiful woman Jane was. He’d had countless lovers in a millennia of living in Asgard and his travels across the nine realms but none could compare to the beauty of one Jane Foster.

The Falcon offered his hand and Jane took it as she rose up. And just like that, the moment was broken for Thor as he realized how long it had been since he saw Jane in the flesh. After Thanos had snapped away everyone, he’d made sure to make Stark search for whether she was alive or not. When Stark had assured him that she’d survived, he was content to leave her alone and take himself to New Asgard where there was no one to make demands of him or his time. Then he proceeded to drown himself in spirits that were never quite strong enough to make him forget the sense of worthlessness and utter failure he felt. Cups turned to mugs turned to flagons turned to barrels until he found himself achieving inebriation successfully.

Now that he was back in the world of the living, he realized he lost a lot more than just his family and home in the years he spent determined to drink himself into a stupor and forget. He’d lost touch with all his Avenger friends, he’d lost touch with the remaining people of Asgard, with Valkyrie, with Jane and anyone else who ever meant anything to him in his long life. Jane and The Falcon left the training room talking between themselves, what had he expected really? It had been six years since he last saw Jane.

Rocket and Groot were busy playing video games as he walked into his apartment in the New Avengers building.

‘Oh hey Thor, how did it go with your lady friend?’

‘I am Groot’

Thor responded by dropping into the couch and putting his feet up on the table. ‘I have no idea what to say to her’ he admitted, realizing once he’d spoken it aloud that it was the truth.

‘What? You’re the God of Thunder, you have centuries of experience flirting with chicks!’

‘I loved none of them, Jane is….different. Besides, she seems rather close to that mortal man with metal wings.’

‘He’s a humie, he doesn’t stand a chance against you. Now stop being mopey about it and get your act together.’

‘You know something Rabbit?’

‘What?’

‘I am tired of your tough-love tactics, they grow tiresome.’

‘Telling the truth is not tough love! If you weren’t so busy feeling sorry for yourself, you’d come up with a solution to get your girl back.’

Thor kept staring at the wall above the television, suddenly his eye came to rest on his hammer Mjolnir which was innocently propped atop a shelf above the television on which Groot and Rocket were fervently playing a game with race cars. An idea hit him like a thunderbolt and Thor smirked, ‘I’ve got it!’ 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, please leave your comments below, they are much appreciated.


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